Massie Trolls Mike Johnson for “Crashing Out” Over Epstein Files Act

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is clearly bothered after fellow Republican Representative Thomas Massie forced a vote on the second Epstein Files Transparency Act, accusing Massie of staging a “political stunt.”

Johnson’s rebuke came one day after Massie secured enough signatures via discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II—which would allow members of Congress, attorneys general, and survivors to sue the DOJ for failing to comply with the original EFTA.

“Mr. Massie got 218 signatures for this Epstein bill to come to the floor.... Are you gonna try to fight this at all?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked Johnson.

“I have never fought getting the Epstein files out—” Johnson replied.

“But you fought that bill, the last bill.”

“What we tried to do all along is maintain principle and balance to protect the victims. I was concerned with their original gambit, which by the way, Thomas Massie did for attention,” Johnson said, arguing that Massie could have brought up the files while Biden was president. “All those files sat completely dormant … for the entire Biden administration.... They did this to go after President Trump.”

“Do you support this bill?” Raju asked.

“I haven’t seen this discharge, this is Thomas Massie trying to get attention again.... He’s just tryna cause chaos on the way out. We have always, I have always been for full transparency of the Epstein files,” Johnson said, refusing to answer the question.

Johnson’s diatribe caught Massie’s attention.

“Speaker of the House crashing out when asked about our new EFTA-II bill that will allow State Attorneys General to prosecute Epstein’s coconspirators, give survivors access to their files, and force the DOJ to release files they’re illegally withholding,” he commented on Raju’s interview with Johnson.

While the Justice Department claims to have withheld about 3 million files to protect victims, there are still questions about missing files and whose names were on them.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has issued a scathing indictment of Donald Trump’s presidency and waning political influence Thursday, charging Trump to return to traditional conservative principles in light of what he described as a midterm “reckoning.”

The former MAGA co-chief slammed many of Trump’s second-term policies during an interview with Fox News Thursday, railing the president’s tariffs and the “air of corruption” that has consumed the White House.

“I believe our voters rejected President Trump’s redirection of our movement toward protectionist tariffs, towards policies of appeasement towards Russia and even Iran, toward marginalizing the right to life,” Pence said. “And I think that the air of corruption around the Trump administration was very concerning to millions of Americans.”

Pence then moved his target toward Vice President JD Vance’s election postmortem. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Vance said GOP-aligned pollsters had identified four issues that overwhelmingly influenced voters: affordability, the Iran war, “America First,” and the current U.S.-Israel relationship.

Pence emphasized that the reasons underlying the election results were “much more complex than gasoline prices or the war in Iran.”

“There’s no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn’t because President Trump started the war or took on Iran,” Pence said. “It’s because we stopped short and didn’t finish it.”

“As Americans saw the politics of appeasement that the administration embraced, one negotiation after another, I think people became ... frustrated with the lack of progress, frustrated with the price of fuel at the pump,” he added.

Pence also chewed Vance out for highlighting a growing national interest in divesting from Israel.

“If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally. It is the only democracy in the Arab world,” said Pence, an ardent Christian Zionist who has spent much of his political career defending Israel.

Democrats in Congress are launching a probe into one of President Trump’s fundraising chiefs, whom he calls his “princess of darkness.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Robert Garcia, and Senator Richard Blumenthal are seeking information from Meredith O’Rourke about her role in Trump’s pet projects, saying that her fundraising “reeks of potential corruption,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Warren and Garcia are the incoming chairs of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations and the House Oversight Committee, respectively.

The letter addresses donations made from corporations including Capital One, SoftBank Group, and Lockheed Martin to Trump’s projects, and how the companies got favorable treatment from the White House afterward. It’s asking for a list of every company and donor O’Rourke reached out to for money, how they responded, and how much she is paid.

O’Rourke has been the main point of contact for companies donating to Trump’s White House ballroom, his presidential library, and the political committees connected to him. Trump generally refers names to her to solicit donations from. The Journal reports that she asks donors for anywhere between $5 million and $50 million, telling them that “this is very important to the president” and “the boss wants this money.”

“You facilitate an operation that raises serious questions about quid pro quo politics,” the letter says to O’Rourke, asking that she respond by November 25.

A spokesperson for O’Rourke and Trump dismissed the letter.

“President Trump is the most successful fundraiser in political history, and he is deeply grateful to his donors, but one thing has never changed: He can’t be bought,” the spokesperson said. “Democrats’ accusations are absurd, baseless, and full of hypocrisy.”

The White House has warned against any investigations into the president and his actions, claiming that such probes constitute crimes. Trump and his cronies seem to think that anything they do is above reproach.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has awarded the soldier who loudly scolded him and his entourage for disturbing the peace at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veteran’s Day.

“We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist. Carry on Patriots,” Hegseth wrote in a post Thursday, sharing photographs of himself and several members of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, taken during an impromptu award ceremony at the Pentagon.

That included Specialist Thomas Iglesias, who reprimanded Hegseth and his retinue on Wednesday as they chatted and laughed after snapping pictures on the stairs in front of the sacred war memorial.

“All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times,”
yelled Iglesias, who was guarding the tomb at the time.

Iglesias was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal Thursday for carrying out his duties.

But it is not clear if Iglesias was actually eligible to receive the commemoration. The Defense Department’s awards manual stipulates that only service members on joint duty assignments can be awarded the joint service medal, according to a review by Military.com. Iglesias, meanwhile, was assigned to an Army regiment, according to Arlington National Cemetery.

Members of service-specific units “are not eligible for DoD Joint [personal military decorations],” according to the manual.

Although exceptions are allowed (and such exceptions are at the discretion of the awarding body or, in this case, the Defense Secretary) it has not been publicly disclosed if such an exception was approved, as a citation was not mentioned in the Pentagon’s statement provided to CNN.

In the aftermath of the interaction on Wednesday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that Iglesias “correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum.”

First lady Melania Trump’s “exclusive senior adviser” is a movie producer who has no security clearance, no political expertise, and no actual boss in the White House. He’s also reportedly been speaking with Ukrainian and Russian officials on the first lady’s behalf.

Marc Beckman, who first worked as a lifestyle consultant to the first lady and produced Amazon’s poorly received Melania documentary, has been advising Melania diplomatically for at least a year. He was specifically credited as a primary connector in the most recent humanitarian ceasefire declaration between Russia and Ukraine, although his role in that process is also unclear. He even posted a picture of himself, Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and Ukrainian official David Arakhamia at the White House on Sunday to celebrate the ceasefire.

Not even the first lady’s former staffers seem to know who Beckman is. First-term adviser Stephanie Grisham told MS NOW that she “never heard [Melania] utter his name for the whole time I was around her.” One current administration member couldn’t seem to remember Beckman’s name when asked. “Is that the guy who looks like Fabio?” he said, referring to Beckman’s shoulder-length hair.

“He’s like the shadow first lady,” Grisham continued. “She does want to do meaningful things, but she lets you bring them to her in a bow. The whole thing is bizarre. I’ve thought, ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ I remember her saying she felt like she was losing her voice because I was putting so many statements out.… She doesn’t like people speaking on her behalf yet he keeps speaking.”

This is one of many instances in which the Trump administration has ignored the proper rules of engagement for politics and diplomacy, allowing private citizens with potential conflicts of interest—like Elon Musk and Jared Kushner—to have a massively outsize impact on the administration’s decisions.